Meanwhile the Government's response to the crisis has been criticised, with many commentators saying more needs to be done to prevent the job losses.

Ministers have been under pressure to act after the Chinese ministry of commerce announced on Friday that it was imposing levies of up to 46% on some types of specialist steels imported from the European Union, South Korea, and Japan.

The move deepened anger among trade unions and MPs following news that Tata Steel was to sell off its loss-making UK assets - largely due to the "dumping" of cheap Chinese steel on world markets - threatening the loss of up to 40,000 British jobs.